Sometimes there comes a time in a person’s career when they have to oversee a big project. This could be a project on a construction site. This could be monitoring a shift from one company system to another. Or it could be developing a new product.
The job of the project manager is to make sure that the job is done on time and budget. Great project managers will always strive to complete a project under budget and ahead of schedule. And they’ll do everything that can to make sure that their project is disrupted as little as possible.
With a little planning, you too can complete your project without so much as breaking a sweat. Here’s how.
Set Achievable Goals
It’s more than likely that you’ll be managing a project for somebody else. That’s why it’s so important for you to be clear with them about what can and cannot be achieved in the timescale.
Often project managers over promise what they can deliver. And this leads to overwork and bad relationships with clients.
Remember, clients want a project to be high quality, delivered on time and to cost as little as possible. And anybody who has been involved in project management for more than a day knows that you can’t have all three. Something has to give. And that’s why it’s so important to set achievable goals with the client.
Plan For Risks
In planning any project, you’ll likely come up with a set of risks. These are things that have the potential to derail a project and cause it not to be delivered on time.
Suppose for example you know that you’re going to be managing a construction project on a site with limited access. If the location doesn’t have mains electricity to run various appliances, that could mean that the whole project is delayed. In that case, you might want to try to reduce that risk by looking into generator hire.
Remember, project management is about always having contingencies plans when things go wrong.
Establish Criteria For Success That Everybody Agrees On
For you to know whether a project is on track, you need some way to measure progress. Which milestones should be accomplished by what time, for example?
Make sure that both you and the client agree on the milestones and the timeline so that you can both keep track of progress. The last thing that you want if to update the customer right at the end of the project, especially if you expect it to be delayed.
Don’t forget; your progress checkpoints don’t have to be as simplified as the clients. You can have far more granular control over your timeline, using checkpoints that you find the most useful.
Get Agreement On The Details
It’s often said that the devil is in the detail. And this applies to large projects too. It’s crucial that project managers make sure that all the relevant stakeholders approve of their plans before work is started.
